Today Corning announced that it’s ready to manufacture a new 3D-shaped Gorilla glass for availability this year. The new glass is designed with curved phone and wearable displays in mind.

As the main glass supplier for iOS devices, Corning’s 3D Gorilla glass could very well end up in future Apple products.

Corning’s 3D-forming technology can achieve precise tolerances and high throughput on a platform that is more economical than alternative two-mold forming methods. This technology uses Gorilla Glass of uniform thickness, assisting designers to introduce thinner and lighter devices and leverage the emergence of conformable displays for mobile and wearable applications.

Corning’s announcement doesn’t make it clear if the 3D-forming glass is the same as its flexible Willow Glass. The thinness and flexibility of Willow Glass gives it the potential to be wrapped around a device or structure, but Corning had previously said that it will take at least three years before Willow Glass can be mass manufactured.

We’ve reached out to Corning for clarification and will update this article if we receive a reply.

Update: Corning has told us that the aforementioned 3D glass is under the consumer Gorilla brand and not Willow Glass, meaning that it is a protective “a cover glass for consumer electronics.”

About the author

Alex Heath is a journalist and co-host of The CultCast who lives in Lexington, Kentucky . He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like "ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation." If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Twitter always works too.

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